Regal Forest Holdings Co. Ltd. ("Regal Forest") (IIC-11935-02)

Countries
  • Barbados
  • Costa Rica
  • Guyana
  • Paraguay
  • Trinidad and Tobago
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • IDB Invest (IDBI)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Dec 16, 2016
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Unicomer (Trinidad) Limited, El Gallo más Gallo de Alajuela S.A., Wisdom Products S.A.E.C.A., Unicom
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
  • Industry and Trade
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 38.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 38.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IIC website

Updated in EWS Aug 17, 2021

Disclosed by Bank Nov 16, 2016

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

From the Inter-American Development Bank Invest (IDB Invest), formerly the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC):

The proposed financing consists of several loans, to be granted directly to some operations of Regal Forest Holdings Co. Ltd., a part of the Unicomer Group, located in Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Guyana and Barbados. These independent loans will have as an objective to finance the client loan portfolio of each of these operations, specifically for the C&D socioeconomic segment.

This is a category B project according to the IIC's Environmental and Social Sustainability Policy because it may result in certain impacts that can be avoided or mitigated following performance standards and guidelines.

The main environmental and labor considerations related to the project include: evaluation of the Environmental and Social Management System; Occupational health and safety programs; Emergency plans and aspects of human and labor resources.

Regal Forest has operations in 24 countries, of which only 5 (Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Paraguay and Barbados) will be financed through this operation. As of March 2016, the company had 987 stores and more than 14 thousand employees (6,771 women and 8,007 men).

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The proposed financing consists of several independent medium term loans, to be granted directly to some operations of Regal Forest Holdings Co. Ltd., located in Trinidad y Tobago, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Guyana and Barbados. These independent loans will have as an objective to finance the client loan portfolio of each of these operations, specifically for the C&D socioeconomic segment. The proposed financing for each Borrower, will be in local currency.

The proposed financing includes US$15,000,000 for Unicomer (Trinidad) Limited; US$10,000,000 for El Gallo más Gallo de Alajuela S.A.; US$7,000,000 for Wisdom Products S.A.E.C.A.; US$4,000,000 for Unicomer (Guyana) Incorporated.; US$2,000,000 for Unicomer (Barbados) Ltd.

Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.
Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Grupo Unicomer Co. Ltd. Parent Company -
- - - - Regal Forest Holdings Limited Subsidiary -

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IIC

The Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism (MICI) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) or Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC)-funded project. If you submit a complaint to MICI, they may assist you in addressing the problems you raised through a dispute-resolution process with those implementing the project and/or through an investigation to assess whether the IDB or IIC is following its own policies for preventing or mitigating harm to people or the environment. You can submit a complaint by sending an email to MICI@iadb.org. You can learn more about the MICI and how to file a complaint at http://www.iadb.org/en/mici/mici,1752.html (in English) or http://www.iadb.org/es/mici/mici,1752.html (Spanish).

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